Giving orders in Norwegian - verbs in the imperative

Yngvil Vatn Guttu

Giving orders in Norwegian - verbs in the imperative

This week we’ll look at verbs and how they can work in Norwegian. We’ll give you a short and sweet overview over all the ways in which you can conjugate verbs. But our main focus is - as the heading suggests - how to make people do what you tell them, a.k.a. How to tell people what to do? Read on !

Tuesday, September 5, 2017

ACTION !

Verbs - words that describe an action - are often regarded as the most important word class in grammar. Action happens in time, and so much of your work with verbs becomes learning and practicing how to conjugate (bøye) verbs in the different times you want to express:

I often say that conjugating verbs is like time travel; by adding endings to the verbs or changing their nucleus, i.e. their basic, shortest form, we express different times or tempus of the action.

COMMON TIMES OF THE VERB

Let us just quickly run through all the times of the verb that you ‘ll ever encounter in Norwegian :

COMMON FORMS OF THE VERB

There are two more ways to express a verb which have nothing to do with time - They are the infinitive and the imperative forms of the verb:

INFINITIVE

This is the neutral, almost abstract way of "presenting" a verb. There is no time suggested, simply the action itself: f.eks

Jeg har lyst til å spise

It's the action of eating which is important, nothing else. Note :å = infinitivsmerke ( to in english) is the infinitive marker . Note: In most cases, the verb in infinitive ends with an "e" .

å snakke å spise å lage

etc...

IMPERATIV

￼ The word imperativ comes from the Latin word imperare - to order. We create imperativ by deleting the - ending of the infinitiv form. Thus the imperativ form is identical with the "nucleus " of the verb.

VERB or VERBAL?

STRONG AND WEAK verbs

Irregular verbs are called sterke verb (strong verbs) in Norwegian. Regular verbs are called svake verb (weak verbs). Learn more about weak and strong verbs in Norwegian here! Hope you enjoyed this flash course in Norwegian verbs! Share your thoughts and ideas for articles in the comments box below!